Happy Birthday, Blog!

Lisa and I have been talking for a while about getting our own blogs up to talk about the ups and downs of our training, possibly some details of our training (an online journal of sorts), and our impressions of and approach to a lifestyle that supports our training. The blogs are now being born.

The Gracie Diet: Week 3

“Lifestyle” has recently become an even more apt term, since we are just into our 3rd week of following the Gracie Diet strictly, and (as we knew already as vegans), nothing reminds you more about what values drive you most than thinking about them every single meal, every day. Every meal now is a reminder that jiu jitsu is a driving force in our lives, which is somehow empowering other aspects of training, I’m happy to report.

So how’s the eatin’ going?

Those who know me best would attest to the fact that, with extremely few exceptions (usually forced), I have not eaten fruit since I was a baby. My hypothesis: a bad jar of peaches ruined it for me then. Veggies got little play through my life either. Strange, for a vegan. What was left? Lots of Boca products, peanut butter, and hummus. Daily multi-vitamins have probably warded off scurvy, rickets, and other malnutrition-based, 19th-century-sailor-killing diseases.

Now, I’m eating many servings of veggies a day, and fruit smoothies too, regularly. I’ve surprised even myself, but had psyched myself up to do it during my last pass through Tony Robbins’ “Personal Power,” which I listen to biannually to get me motivated to make just this kind of life change.

The Gracie Diet has been mostly easy enough, though I first struggled with the lack of preparation-free food. Lisa and I have had some serious planning sessions around groceries, and food prep, though, and seem not only to have figured out a way to eat well and somewhat conveniently (some pre-prepared goods), but it also looks like we’ll be <b>saving money</b>, a pleasant surprise to both of us, considering the huge increase in fruit and veggie groceries, and a complete switch from Stop & Shop to (generally more expensive) Whole Foods Market!

Most interestingly to me about this new diet is a feeling I have had a few times recently while eating, which might sound strange to say…

I have felt grateful to my food for sustaining me.

Everything I have eaten historically has been very dead, by processing, packaging, reheating, etc. This may sound unsurprising to most people, since most people have eaten fresh food before plenty of times, but it is a novel thing to me, and is eye-opening in the way everyone basically told me it would be to start eating healthy food after my past habits. Notable, though, hence, noted.

Looking Forward

Soon I will be posting a couple of old blog posts I made to Jay Bell’s former blog, submissionsinc.com (a URL that has since quite humorously been appropriated by a random real estate lady).

I look forward to posting here with whatever regularity time and attention span allow.